Steubenville Police

Dressing down: A resident in the 700 block of Woodlawn Road someone left a pair of pants and a .22 long rifle on her porch overnight, Friday. She told police the items weren’t there when she came in the night before and has no idea how they got there, but said a neighbor found a second pair of pants that she washed and kept “because they were her size.” Minutes later police were called by a resident in the 1300 block of Oak Grove Avenue who found a jacket and a hypodermic on their porch.

Swinger: A man was taken into custody after he allegedly assaulted a woman in the 800 block of Market Street with a baseball bat, Saturday. Bryant C. Owens II, 24, 902 Pittsburgh St., was located at a nearby residence, police said. He’s facing charges of assault and burglary.

Someone’s lying: Residents of two households in a building in the 800 block of North Sixth Street don’t get along and couldn’t agree on who’s to blame, Friday. The caller complained that her neighbors “yelled and cursed” at her and a toddler, and when she told the child’s mother about it she confronted the neighbor and “it turned into (an) argument” but hadn’t turned physical. They also said the neighbors are “constantly yelling at each other at all hours.” Residents living in the other household said no one there had “yelled or cursed” anyone, much less a child, and said the mother “came to their residence banging on the door” and when they opened it, she and the woman who had been watching the child “began to threaten her” so her husband responded by “yelling at them.” She said she and her husband “joke around and yell at each other” but never at the neighbors. Both households were advised to avoid interacting with the other.

Off-road: A driver was cited after his vehicle struck a power pole and then a building at 328 North Street, Tuesday. Police said the front of the vehicle was “heavily damaged” from the impact but it didn’t appear to have gone into the building. The driver, identified as James Callas, 61, 2651 Alvaredo Blvd., said he swerved to miss a vehicle that failed to stop at the Dock Street and North Fifth Street intersection. He was cited for failure to control.

Out of it: A woman in the 500 block of Arden Avenue said her live-in boyfriend of six years had “locked her out … and would not let her back in.” Police tried to speak with him but he didn’t answer the door.

Bad look: An Adams Street resident needed help getting a woman to leave because she was causing a disturbance, Tuesday. She told police the visitor was intoxicated and doesn’t live there, and after telling her she needed to leave they waited for her ride to pick up the unwelcome guest and her children.

Funny money: Someone tried to buy three Visa gift cards at Wal-Mart with a counterfeit $100 bill, Tuesday. The man left and the bogus bill was turned over to police.

Tone it down: Neighbors complained of loud music at a residence in the 700 block of Rosswell Avenue, early Wednesday morning. Police were called to the location twice but didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary the first time. When they returned a few minutes later, police said the music was playing so loudly “that the occupants were unable to hear” them knocking, so they “shined a flashlight in the front window,” catching the attention of someone inside. After advising the homeowner of the complaints and the city’s noise ordinance, police told her she needs to be “more mindful of her neighbors, especially at such a late hour” and warned that if they had to return she’d be cited.

Backfired: A Weirton man was taken into custody after he called police to report men he knew were “pacing back and forth” in the 100 block of North Fourth Street, “attempting to get (in)” and he “did not feel safe” and wanted to leave, Wednesday. Police said there was no one in the area at the time but they agreed to give him a ride to a location in the south end, but as they walked to the cruiser they noticed the caller lagging behind and when he turned, allegedly saw the caller “remove his left hand from his pocket” and appeared to have something balled up in his fist. He was told to drop whatever he was holding, which police maintain was a “white, rock-like substance” that he stepped on. Police said Christopher M. Popovich, 49, 119 Greenlawn Blvd., was being booked into the county jail for possession of drugs and tampering, but a conveyance charge was added after correctional officers allegedly removed a container with what appeared to be the same white, rock-like substance inside it and, when asked if he had anything else, produced a plastic sandwich bag containing several pills and more of the white substance.

Questions: A couple in the process of divorcing reported visitation issues, Saturday. The male said the judge had advised them to work out an arrangement they could live with and they’d agreed he should be able to see his child for four hours on Tuesdays and Saturdays but there was nothing in writing and now she wasn’t letting him see the child. Complicating the situation is a protection order she obtained preventing him from seeing or being around his estranged wife, but she insists he only see the child at her place and that he wait in his car until she leaves. He told police he thinks she’s trying to set him up by telling him on several occasions “to enter the house before she is gone” even though she knows it would be a violation of the court order and said when he told her he’d like to stick with the terms of the original protection order she became upset, calling him a derogatory term. Before speaking to his estranged wife, police told him they need to complete the divorce as soon as possible because then a court-approved custody agreement could be enforced and any violators arrested. Police said when they attempted to communicate her estranged husband’s concerns to her, they said she “quickly became upset” and after she calmed down corroborated most of what her husband had said though she claimed he’d been violating the protection order on his own without coercion from her.” The wife claims her ex is “mentally unstable,” but when officers pointed out during their conversation with him they hadn’t seen or heard anything to suggest he was unstable she proceeded to tell them they are “not aware of the current situation to its entirety” and she wasn’t comfortable with him having visitation with their child because of it. After they told her there was nothing they could do because there was no binding visitation agreement to work from the woman “expressed concerns with … the protection order” and claimed police don’t care about alleged past violations of the protection order and claims someone had laughed when she previously tried to report an alleged violation so she quit calling.

Fired up: A homeless man started a fire by city-owned equipment behind a building in the 1000 block of North Sixth Avenue, Saturday. The caller had a photo of the man, who police located by another small fire being a second property in the same block. The man said he was “trying to warm up” and admitted to police he doesn’t have a home, though he’d been staying in Weirton. Police gave him a ride to the gas station so he could make his way to Weirton.

Served: Rodney J. Baker, 38, 1320 Arlington Ave., Steubenville, failure to appear warrants in Jefferson and Belmont counties, Wednesday. Police said Baker came to their attention after they were called to the residence following a “minor physical altercation” with a friend over a soda.

Summons issued: Kristina M. Potkrajac, 44, 332 Saline St., Irondale, petit theft, Tuesday. Employees at Wal-Mart allege Potkrajack bagged toys, cat food and other items that she hadn’t scanned and which weren’t part of the Spark order she was fulfilling, police said.

Heading out: Someone in the 1600 block of Ridge Avenue called 9-1-1 and then hung up, Saturday. Dispatchers had heard an individual in the background yelling “get out” so police were sent to the location to speak with the occupants, who said all was well and one of them “was leaving the residence.” The caller said the argument never escalated to a physical confrontation and the male was leaving the residence.

Reported: A caller reported hearing three shots fired but when police checked the area they said nothing was amiss and there was nothing to suggest a gun had been fired.